16 Moths Count Newsletter 2011 Half Price Membership Offer Why not become a member of Butterfly Conservation for one Moths Count year at half the usual price? Offer available online from 16 th to 3 1st July 2 011 Ne wsl etter 2011 Membership subscriptions are essential to enable us to The NMRS: Pu tting continue all the important work we do to save threatened moths . By taking advantage of this special half price offer you will not Moths on the Map only get yourself a bargain but will also directly contribute to In the early days of the Moths Count project the the survival of these amazing creatures. Moths Count establishment of a National Moth Recording Scheme (NMRS) Contacts was extremely ambitious, particularly as many vice-counties As a member of Butterfly Conservation didn’t have a computerised dataset; records were stored you will receive the following benefits: General enquiries on a card-index or in some cases even on scraps of paper info @butterfly-conservation.org 01929 400209 in cardboard boxes! Furthermore, 34 vice-counties didn’t I New member welcome pack Richard Fox have an active County Moth Recorder. Fortunately, due to I Our exclusive full-colour magazine Butterfly , three times a year Surveys Manager the enthusiasm and willingness of many individuals these I Membership of your local Butterfly Conservation Branch rfox @butterfly-conservation.org 01626 368385 hurdles were overcome. The moth recording community I Opportunities to take part in monitoring and recording schemes Les Hill rose to the challenge of either volunteering themselves for I Regional newsletters and local events Database Manager the vital role of County Moth Recorder or in assisting in lhill @butterfly-conservation.org 01929 406008 the computerisation of hundreds of thousands of paper To take advantage of this special half price offer join online at Zoë Randle records enabling County Recorders to concentrate on the www.butterfly-conservation.org between 16th and 3 1st July Surveys Officer verification of records. The County Moth Recorder network zrandle @butterfly-conservation.org 01929 406006 2011. Alternatively you can join online outside these dates and is at the heart of the NMRS and without them we could receive 3 months free when you pay by direct debit. Please not have achieved what we have. choose ‘Moths Count’ in the where did you hear about us box Acknowledgements on the online form. The ongoing Moths Count project is supported The climax of the first four years of the Moths Count project financially by The Redwing Trust, Countryside Council was undoubtedly the publication of the Provisional Atlas of If you would like any further information about membership for Wales, Northern Ireland Environment Agency, the UK’s Larger Moths . The first print run sold out in a matter or would like to join by phone please call 01929 406015 Royal Entomological Society, Scottish Natural of weeks. However, it is back in print and available NOW! or email [email protected] Heritage and many other individuals and partners. (see page 06). This landmark production is a compilation of Offer available for new members only. Business partners include Anglian Lepidopterist years of recording and survey effort by the UK moth recording Supplies, Apollo Books, British Wildlife Publishing, community. It is a great achievement to be able to publish the MapMate, Nectar Creative and Watkins & Doncaster. first up-to-date maps in 30 years for 868 macro-moth species. The maps for the Geometridae (over 300 species) are the first ever to be published! The Redwing Trust The maps were generated from the NMRS database which, at the time, held 11.3 million moth records from all UK vice-counties plus the Channel Islands and Isle of Man. Moths Count Butterfly Conservation Manor Yard East Lulwort h Dorse t BH20 5QP We hope that it is exciting and rewarding, as well as useful, t 01929 40020 9 www. mothscount.or g e info @butterfly-conservation.org for individual moth recorders to see their records in a national context. >> Butterfly Conservation, Company limited by guarantee, registered in England (2206468) Registered Office: Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5QP. Six-belted Clearwing (P. Clement) Charity registered in England and Wales (254937) and in Scotland (SCO39268). MC11 Designed and produced by nectar creative.com 01942 681648. Printed on 100% recycled stock. 02 Moths Count Newsletter 2011 03 >> A recurring question asked is “why is the atlas Moth records from the Republic of Ireland were not included We can also use them to look at species colonisations. The NMRS database currently holds 11.8 million moth provisional ?” The answer is that the NMRS database is in the Provisional Atlas because the publication was a specific Several species have colonised or re-colonised the UK in records from the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. still in its infancy; there are gaps in recording coverage, output of the Heritage Lottery funded Moths Count project, recent years. For example, only three records (dating back The majority of moth records in the NMRS database are from due to under-recording or data that have yet to be submitted, which was explicitly UK-based. However, in the future, we to the 19th century) of the Tree-lichen Beauty had been England (81%). Wales and Scotland have contributed 10% and historical records are particularly sparse (almost 60% hope to collaborate with Moths Ireland and the National reported in the UK up until 1991. Over the next decade many and 8% of records respectively, Northern Ireland 1.3%, of the records held in the database are from the year 2000 Biodiversity Data Centre to produce maps of the whole of more were recorded as probable immigrants, but around the whilst the Channel Islands have submitted 0.4% and the Isle onwards). Another reason why the atlas is provisional is Britain and Ireland. If any UK moth recorders do visit the year 2001, migration turned into colonisation. Resident of Man 0.2% of records. With the exception of the Channel because there are apparent errors in the data, despite the Republic and record moths please forward your records to populations are now established in southern counties (Kent, Islands, these figures are not surprising as they reflect the huge efforts undertaken by County Moth Recorders, local the Moths Ireland team via [email protected] . Essex, Surrey and Middlesex, with migrants or wanderers overall human population density and moth recorder density and national experts to verify the records. being seen much further afield) (Figure 1). A single adult was within the different countries. The NMRS database has a multitude of potential uses trapped at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster in 2007! The atlas is not a definitive record of the exact distribution of primarily focussed on moth conservation. Our knowledge Vice-county (VC) datasets are very variable in size; the largest each species, past and present. However, it is an important of moth ecology and distribution can be improved, trends Clancy’s Rustic is another recent colonist, the first British VC datasets in the NMRS database at present for England, and significant step forward in our knowledge of moths. will be generated and revised threat statuses for each record was from Kent in 2002 and the following year six were Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are presented in Furthermore, the publication of the atlas means that potential species can be produced. Butterfly Conservation and its recorded in South East England. Three years later (2005) a the table below. errors can be identified and that recorders can tackle gaps collaborative partners are working on these analyses as staggering 160 were recorded along the south coast, 60% of in recording coverage. These so called ‘white holes’ provide a matter of urgency. them in Kent. This species is now well established as a resident Table 1: Top three VCs for each country the ideal excuse for a moth-ing trip or holiday! in coastal areas of southern counties from Devon to Suffolk Vice-county No. records The database can also be used to inform land-use planning (Figure 2). The Small Ranunculus was once a resident in the Since the production of the Provisional Atlas the NMRS and management decisions that impact on biodiversity. UK and could be found primarily in South East England and England South Hampshire 763,538 database has continued to grow. We have received 54 County Moth Recorders can contribute to this by sharing East Anglia. However, by 1939 the moth had disappeared Hertfordshire 546,040 refreshed vice-county datasets which, once incorporated their datasets with local environmental records centres and was thought to be extinct. It was rediscovered in Kent in South Lancashire 465,521 into the NMRS, will take the total number of records to over and, at the national level, the NMRS database is available 1997 and by the following year both adults and larvae were Wales Glamorgan 268,376 12 million. Whilst the moth recording community continues to Natural England and Countryside Council for Wales staff found, indicating that the moth was breeding in the UK once Ceredigion 207,267 to record moths, the database continues to expand. (and Scottish Natural Heritage staff too shortly, we hope) more. It has gone from strength to strength since then and Pembrokeshire 178,395 To contribute to the NMRS please send your records to for use in their conservation work. The distribution maps this moth is now well established in the South East of Scotland Stirlingshire 119,940 your County Moth Recorder, contact details can be found are an important tool in assessing species’ range changes, England and even in South Wales, where historically only East Inverness-shire 90,825 on the Moths Count website ( www.mothscount.org ).